LeBron on Durant's 1st title: Something 'they can never take away from you'

LeBron James has been where Kevin Durant has been, has felt what he's felt, winning that elusive championship after years of near misses. The two men won their first titles in remarkably similar, almost circular fashion.

Both left the teams that drafted them after years of carrying them to great heights but failing to reach the pinnacle. Both opted to go the unpopular route, joining up with multiple All-Stars to form superteams (even if James insists he's never played for one), and finding a measure of vindication in finally attaining the label of "champion."

"He felt like he needed to reassemble and reassess his career and come here," James said of Durant after Game 5.

In 2012, James won his maiden Larry O'Brien trophy when his Miami Heat beat Durant's Oklahoma City Thunder. Five years later, with James back in Cleveland, Durant got his first when his Golden State Warriors beat the Cavaliers.

Disappointed as he was by the defeat, and exasperated as he was by the notion of trying to topple this Warriors juggernaut in the future, James acknowledged how much the championship will mean to Durant.

"Getting that first championship for me was like having my first son," James said. "It was just a proud moment, something that you never, ever forget. And at the end of the day ... no matter what anybody says from now on in your career or whatever they say, they can never take away from you being a champion. That's something that they are always going to speak about, about you. It may be like the last thing they may say, but they are always going to have to say that you're a champion.

"Like I said, when you put in the work and things pay off, then you can always be okay with whatever else happens in your career."